So, my in LHS... noticed this TLT-1 just sitting with no love. 2 months go by, still hanging around. The TLT-1 has a special place for me because it was among the first trucks I tried to customize. I read an article on TamiyaUSA.com back in 2004 or 2005, http://www.tamiyausa.com/articles/feature.php?article-id=135#.U9xD64FdWSo. I love walk-throughs and this one I attempted
Cool build and catapulted me into a different side of the hobby, eventually to modified clodbusters.Fast forward a few years and here I am looking at another TLT. I was almost convinced to "buy it for my son." I just happened to pick up a mini-slash lid and saw that the wheelbase was close. I bought the truck right away for $75 and put into motion the following plan.
My game plan from the beginning was to keep this on the cheap. I had a jconcepts illusion lid for the traxxas slash laying around from a trade a while back (probably discontinued now, you can still pick them up on ebay probably). If not a traxxas SCT lid should work but probably disco'd too.
Don't get me wrong, I passed the whole "paint my own lids" a long time ago. But... this was to keep it affordable. I masked the lid down using a cheap airbrush and water-downed liquid mask. These airbrushing are like $15... I think I got this one with my hobby air compressor I bought at Home Depot a few years ago. Work great, easy to clean afterwards and does the job fantastic. I put 3 coats on... I use a hair dryer in-between coats and that makes everything go fast. Check out this lid... ALL PAINT
Just kidding, I only painted the black and blue, the rest is vinyl. But it still looks great!!! I painted the black scalops to mimic dimension. I trimmed the windows for a more traditional look, the mould lines for the jconcepts are more dynamic and would have made my real window decals wierd and out of place. In addition, I was a little worried that the "Bigfoot" stickers over the rear wheel wells would look funny because of the short edge and flat top. I had three options: lay them completely on top, just cut the wheel wells lower and place completely on the side, or kinda do a half and half thing. I figured with this small scale most people will be scoping the truck out from above so you can't even tell and it looks good. Don't be afraid to paint outside the lines... this project taught me to make it your own.
Now the chassis and wheels. Really the only thing I had to do was extend the wheelbase. It was quite easy... I took the existing lower links and moved them to the top. You will have to adjust them a little longer. Then I made new lower links. Basically I originally created new lower links that were individually 15mm longer. However I found that was just a little too short (because of the availability of driveshafts), so 18-20mm is the way to go. The original lower links were around 70mm, now I have lower links at 88mm. I hadn't realized this until this point, but you will also need to pick up longer driveshafts. I almost paniced because what and where... doh,I forgot about driveshafts. I had adjusted my wheelbase originally so that the front was 5mm shorter than the rear, so I was looking for two different sizes. Keep it simple! I found that vaterra makes a perfect set of driveshafts for this transformation... part number VTR212007, $10 for a pair. These dogbones are 56mm pin-to-pin. The originals are 36mm. Like I said I was looking for 49-50mm shorter ones for the front and I thought I had found them with the rc18 but they are not big enough for the tamiya drivecups. At least the stock plastic ones I picked up. Maybe the aftermarket aluminum ones for rc18 might work. At this point I just adjusted my front wheelbase to match the rear and the stance looks fine with equal front and rear diriveshafts. Must remember to Keep it simple
Wheels... I was originally thinking bigger wild willy wheels and tires. But once I mounted that body nice and low on the chassis... the TLT ones work great. I am sure this will come down to preference but I like them and it keeps with my budget.
